Letters to the Editor, Wall Street Journal
The only thing that we as Americans have in common is that we like to be left alone to do what we want to do in our own backyards. The problem is that we are constantly in each other’s faces.
Although I was raised in New Jersey and live in Manhattan, I was fortunate to experience life in other parts of the country while in the Army (“America, Meet America,” Review, July 1). As a result of my military service, I lived in North Carolina, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas. Thus, unlike my friends who never have left the liberal cocoons of the Northeast or the West Coast, I appreciate why those in red states don’t understand why a 14-year-old girl can be suspended for saying a prayer in school, but the same 14-year-old may get an abortion without her parents’ involvement. Similarly, while half the people I knew in South Dakota had guns, there was less firearms-related violence in a year in that state than there was in a weekend in Chicago.
Edward S. Hochman
New York
As a foreigner who has become an American and then spent a year abroad in yet another country, and someone who has lived for 17 years in Southern California and now lives in northern Florida, and someone whose family is politically divided, I had my share of cultural shocks. The only thing that we as Americans have in common is that we like to be left alone to do what we want to do in our own backyards. The problem is that we are constantly in each other’s faces because of social media, the internet and TV. We don’t need to meet each other; we need to leave each other alone. Seventy years ago the domestic exchange program worked because we had one cultural bond—Christianity. Now that bond is gone. The left’s worship of government cannot be reconciled with the right’s Christian beliefs. Our political beliefs have become our religious beliefs and vice versa. We are no longer e pluribus unum; we have splintered into two very different Americas. Unless the two Americas leave each other alone, we might not have one America for much longer.
As a foreigner who has become an American and then spent a year abroad in yet another country, and someone who has lived for 17 years in Southern California and now lives in northern Florida, and someone whose family is politically divided, I had my share of cultural shocks. The only thing that we as Americans have in common is that we like to be left alone to do what we want to do in our own backyards. The problem is that we are constantly in each other’s faces because of social media, the internet and TV. We don’t need to meet each other; we need to leave each other alone. Seventy years ago the domestic exchange program worked because we had one cultural bond—Christianity. Now that bond is gone. The left’s worship of government cannot be reconciled with the right’s Christian beliefs. Our political beliefs have become our religious beliefs and vice versa. We are no longer e pluribus unum; we have splintered into two very different Americas. Unless the two Americas leave each other alone, we might not have one America for much longer.
Anna Howland
St. Johns, Fla.
Having been an exchange student myself, I can appreciate the worth of bringing people from different cultures together for better understanding. What we face today in our politically ravaged society isn’t going to be solved by a meet-and-greet. Rural folks and urbanites aren’t homogeneous groups, and our divides aren’t based on misunderstandings. We are teetering on the edge of a civil war. Would it have been helpful for the Union and Confederate soldiers to sit around the dinner table? We used to all listen to the same nightly news. We disagreed politically, but our conclusions were more often based on the same facts. The media need to ratchet down the hate and deliberate lies before we can begin to break bread.
Bonnie Sobel
Nicholasville, Ky.
Although I am perfectly comfortable breaking bread and rubbing elbows with passionate liberals, I did ask our children to please not marry a left-wing zealot who might feel compelled to lecture us at family gatherings about proper progressive values. If I need further insight into those values, I can watch any TV network newscast. My conservative friends and I don’t deny our conservatism, but we do tend to keep it under wraps among liberals. Completely open exchanges about values and ideology might open more wounds than they heal.
Ryan Phillips
Orlando, Fla.